This invention relates to appliances having an electrical power cord and a rewind reel therefor, and more particularly to a cord guiding and locking device for gripping and selectively releasing the cord.
It is common for ambulatory household appliances such as upright suction cleaners to include self winding cord retracting reels. These retracting reels are spring biased to exert a continuous retracting force on the cord. Some of the cord reels are equipped with ratchet mechanisms to prevent cord retraction except when desired, but this construction adds to the cost of the unit and are subject to excessive wear and to malfunctions. In recognition of these defects a number of cord gripping and releasing devices have been proposed by the prior art. One such device, illustrated in Scott U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,107, uses a housing mounted on the upper portion of the handle and includes a spring biased locking lever having a serrated cam surface acting to functionally engage the cord against an anvil. The serrations however place more stress on the cord than is desirable. Other known devices use a wedging principle whereby the cord is wedged in a slot in a pivotable member when the plane of the slot is tilted. Examples of these latter devices are illustrated in Meletti U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,128; Price U.S. Pat. No. 3,332,637 and Meyerhoefer U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,904. The devices illustrated in these patents are however incorporated at the base of a canister vacuum cleaner near the reel and not on an upright handle remote from the reel. Another known device using the wedging principle comprises a pair of sheet metal members one of which is fixed to the handle of an upright cleaner and has a hole through which the cord passes, and another of which is pivotable and has a slot for wedging the cord until the pivotable member is tilted by squeezing together a pair of tabs, one on each member.